QT Sydney Staff Has Its Own In-House Stylists

We’ve come a long way from hotel staff wearing boxy, nondescript uniforms (hell, at some hotels you get to wear Lacroix Couture), but QT Sydney is taking things yet another step further: not only does staff have its stylish uniforms (by costume designer Janet Hine), an in-house stylist is on hand to get the look just so before starting work.

The result is – not surprisingly – some very well put together staff, like the blue-shirted Porters and red-wigged Directors of Chaos at the hotel’s entrance. Their job is getting you out of the hustle of Market Street, into the ornate downstairs gallery (the hotel combines the former Gowings Department Store and State Theatre), and up one floor to reception.

We chatted with one of the stylists and some of the staff as they were getting ready back-of-house, and learned that those red Director of Chaos wigs are real hair (washed and re-died frequently), that the women’s makeup varies depending on where they work in the hotel (e.g. a different color lipstick), and saw a range of different hair styles prepared in no time at all.

We’d say we wait for the day our job comes with someone to make us look our best, but doubt that will ever happen. For anyone not working at the hotel, there is the option of the QT’s SpaQ, which aside from a menu of treatments for both men and women, has a traditional barbershop for gents to get their look sharpened.

A Deluxe King Room at QT Sydney on a weekend early May starts at AU$323 ($300), which throws in the choice of breakfast or dinner for two or two spa treatments. A traditional wet shave starts at AU$45 ($42).